The personal injury lawyers at Gelb & Gelb have been practicing law in Washington, D.C., and Maryland for over 70 years, during which time we have represented over 10,000 clients. While every case is different and brings its own unique set of challenges, many things remain the same. Some of these aspects that remain the same are common misconceptions about personal injury claims. We seek to address those here. These misconceptions often lead to misunderstandings about the claims process, the cost of pursuing a claim, and the likelihood of receiving fair compensation. As such, many claimants miss out on pursuing a claim altogether. Accordingly, we have set out to debunk some of the most common myths surrounding personal injury claims to provide a clearer understanding of how the claims process works.
Are Injury Claims Always Expensive?
Personal injury claims do not have to be expensive. It depends on the nature of your case, but it should never cost you anything out-of-pocket.
Nature of Your Case
Whether your personal injury claim will be expensive and time-consuming depends on several factors. The short answer to this misconception is that it depends on the nature of your case. For the more typical car accident case, it should not be expensive.
Costs and Recovery
And even if it is costly to file suit and hire expert witnesses, you are almost guaranteed to recover more compensation than you will spend on expenses. Otherwise, it is highly atypical for a personal injury attorney to take your case on in the first place, as injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. Moreover, we advance all costs prior to litigation.
Expense and Risk of Litigation
Thus, while a personal injury claim can be expensive, it generally is not. If it is costly, your lawyer should only advise you to continue pursuing the claim if the potential recovery is worth the risk of litigation.
Are Personal Injury Claims Always Time-Consuming?
The second part of this is whether personal injury claims are always time-consuming. You should be hesitant to believe anything can be as extreme as to fall into the category of “always.” As with many other things in law, it depends on several factors whether your case will be time-consuming. It also depends on what you consider to be a long time.
Shorter Case Resolutions
A shorter case can be successfully resolved in a matter of three to four months.
Longer Case Resolutions
On the other side of the coin, a claimant may treat for two whole years before being discharged, particularly with more severe accidents. Then, after receiving all bills and records from the various medical providers, we can learn that the insurance provider is unwilling to make a reasonable settlement offer.
Filing a Lawsuit
In this instance, we file a lawsuit against the defendant. Getting into court depends on the state and county where we file suit. In Maryland, it can take about a year to get into court. Thus, whether your case will be prolonged depends on how long it takes for you to finish treatment for your injuries and whether we must file suit.
These are the two most impactful factors. Other factors are not present in every case and can take months to complete. One such example is we must confirm the amount of a lien from your health insurer if they paid any of your medical bills. In Virginia, this can take up to six months.
How Contingency Fees Make Personal Injury Claims Affordable
Contingency fees allow injury victims to afford top-level legal representation after an auto accident. Unfortunately, many fields of law are out of reach for everyday Americans. This is not the case for personal injury claims because a legal fee is not due until after and only if there is a recovery. This affords every accident victim the chance for legal representation where they may otherwise not have the means to do so. This happens because there is no upfront cost as part of the retainer. Instead, while you sign a retainer, there is no fee requirement. This makes the best representation affordable because you do not need cash upfront to pay the lawyer.
Additionally, it further aligns your interests with your attorney’s. This is because the more you get paid, the more your lawyer gets paid. This is a bigger incentive than the typical model where the lawyer bills a client by the hour.
In the traditional model, a lawyer bills by the hour in six-minute increments. Thus, the attorney is incentivized to work on your case for as long as possible. One problem with this fee structure is that lawyers often spend unnecessary time writing extra-long emails to clients that could have been better explained over the phone over a five-minute conversation. Compare this to a 25-minute email costing the client about four times as much. While the attorney has the motivation to work overtime on your case, there is no incentive to get you the most compensation possible for your injuries. Our over 70 years of experience have made it clear that this is what clients prefer as long as they are properly informed of each step.
Factors That Can Shorten the Duration of a Personal Injury Case
Several factors can shorten the duration of a personal injury case. We have already addressed two that can dramatically extend the length of a case. Those are whether we must file a lawsuit against the defendant and how long it takes you to finish your medical treatment. Beyond those two issues, there are other factors we should address that affect the duration of a case.
The first factor is whether there is clear liability. If there is no clear liability, it can lead to a dispute between our attorneys and lawyers for the insurance company. In such a case, we may be forced to pursue a lawsuit to preserve your right to compensation when the other parties are at fault. Even if we do not file a lawsuit, we may have to go to mediation, arbitration, or another alternative dispute resolution. At the least, there will be a more extended negotiation period to determine what your claim is worth if it would be harder to prove liability at trial.
Additional Factors Impacting the Duration of a Personal Injury Case
Other factors that can shorten the length of a case include how quickly it takes to receive documentation from all medical providers. For example, if you go to one medical provider that we send you to, we may receive all final bills and records within a week. However, if you go to a smaller practice that is not used to communicating with law firms or they are more disorganized or understaffed, it can take them weeks to get us everything we need. Within the context of waiting, it brings us to our third factor.
This is regarding how cooperative the adverse insurer is. Sometimes, the insurance adjuster is quick to respond and complete evaluations. In other cases, they may be out of the office for weeks on vacation, not returning messages, and generally inefficient at their job. This can slow your case down dramatically. However, we will do everything we can to speed them along.
Speak to an Attorney
Contact our office today for a free consultation and case evaluation. We will advise you on the viability of your claim and discuss your case’s expense and time-consumption aspects.
Call us today at (202) 331-7227.
